Spenser's Trousers

It's great having a guy like Spenser Tang-Smith as a part of the blurr ambassador team and even better when we can send him a piece of gear, have him live with it for a bit and then come back to us raving.  Who knew he liked trousers so much, here are some words and photos he sent through recently:

From Spenser --

I want to talk about pants.

I don’t often talk about pants, because I don’t often think about pants. I see them as strictly utilitarian. They are meant to cover my underwear, and protect my legs, to some extent, from abrasion and cold. I only really notice pants if they aren’t working properly.

Over the past 6 months, I’ve been wearing exactly 3 different pants for approximately 90% of my days, and none of them are worse for the wear. Each pair allows for unrestricted movement, waist adjusting, and infrequent washing.

I’ve never said this publicly before: I love these pants. 

The gaudy green board shorts are super-flexible and durable, and quick-drying. The grey pants may look skinny, but they’re gusseted in just the right places to allow me to do sun salutations in them (and boulder problems). 

But this is my go to pair:

First and foremost, corduroys are, by far, the most comfortable rugged pant you can get. They’re warmer and stretchier than denim, and they’re ribbed, which is cool even if the ribbing is irrelevant to their functionality. If you’ve never worn cords before, go get you some.

Corduroys tend to be warmer than jeans or other pants of similar weight. Pants that are too hot are no good either, and I’ve noticed that I don’t immediately overheat when there’s a hike I have to do.

Spain was incredibly fun, but a bit chilly. The first 3 or 4 days were downright cold, with temps in the 40s-50s during the day accompanied by 40 mph gusts that would rob any exposed skin of warmth and moisture. It was mandatory down jacket weather at night, or between climbs. The cords kept me warm. But even when the weather improved, I wore them. I tell no lie when I say I wore them every day for 2 1/2 weeks. 

One more thing about pants, or really, about things in general: I really dislike items that only have one use. In our never-ending quest to live simpler, more flexible lives, we have sought out the most versatile and durable things possible. This applies to clothing too, and being able to wear the same pair of pants for a day at the crag and an evening at a French restaurant is what made me fall in love with a pair of pants for the very first time.

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blurr ambassador Jon Sedor is competing the weekend, all the best from the crew at blurr.  From Jon's blog...

I hate this feeling.  It always happens before a major competition, or well, really before any competition.  Butterflies soar freely in my stomach and I start to second-guess if I trained hard enough.  I suppose the silver lining, this time, would be that my anxiety didn’t kick in until the week of the competition, right?

This week I will be driving to Madison, Wisconsin to compete in ABS Nationals.  This is not the first time I’ve competed in Nationals, and it won’t be my last time either.  However, my nerves tend to get the best of me before any type of competition setting.  I feel on edge and all my thoughts become a huge traffic jam in my brain.  I don’t even like competitions and if any of you know me well enough from when I was younger, it’s not secret that team sports and any kind of structured competition was not my style.  I even convinced my high school to let me ride BMX for gym credit instead of having a coach tell me I can’t lift heavy things in the weight room – so why would I ever compete in climbing? Didn’t the guys who started this whole climbing lifestyle originally risk life and limb (sometimes literally) for the sake of adventure and to push one’s own limits? I would assume the answer is yes to the last question, however, that’s not the point of this post.  The point is that I dislike competing because of the pressure I put on myself.  My coach, girlfriend, and sponsors only support me and encourage me.  Not one of those people ever put inappropriate amounts of pressure on me to “do well” – it all comes from within me.  The difference this year, is that I have placed the same amount of pressure on myself to do well, win, or whatever, but I’m working on controlling my anxiety in a constructive manner.  I have no problem saying I’m nervous.  I have no issue saying I worked hard and I want it to pay off.  The issue is that I place such high expectations on myself when I cannot always reach my goal, or no other outcome is satisfactory for me.  So what’s the secret to staying calm? How can I control the thoughts zooming around my brain? Well for me the answer, so far, has been meditation.  Yes, I said meditation.  Was I skeptical at first? Yes.  Did I think meditation is only stupid hippy shit? Yes.  Was I completely wrong to assume all of this? YES.

Till a few weeks ago, I thought meditation was a waste of time.  I thought it was for tree hugging idiots that want to get in touch and explore their feelings, be like “Zen” or something.  Quite honestly, I don’t want to know the inner workings of my brain and go explore how messed up my head could be – it freaks me out.  But after my girlfriend and another close friend kept nudging me over time to give meditation a try, I finally agreed to sit still for 10 minutes (which is basically impossible for me).  Since I have no idea how to meditate I went looking for guided meditations.  A friend recommended an iPhone app called Headspace.  After the first attempt at becoming enlightened I felt nothing change – in fact my head hurt from trying to concentrate on my breathing plus what I physically felt in my body when my ADHD lets me think of three separate topics at the same time (yes, I’m serious).  The second day I sat still again…sort of…and I followed the instructions of the voice.  After the second session I actually felt calmer or a bit less stressed.  I have since learned that meditation is not simply to delve into the psyche and analyze our subconscious and bottled up feelings, but it is a tool to help keep us in the present.  We all have worries, fears, etc. and you cannot stop them from happening – it’s a part of being human.  Previously my answer was to ignore these feelings and pretend they don’t exist.  I was wrong.  The idea is to acknowledge these feelings, but to let these thoughts pass on their own.  The idea is to distance oneself from all the thoughts zooming through our heads but to stay in the present.  We want to avoid a traffic jam of ideas and feelings in our brain, and to not feed into anxieties that we all have in life.  Although I still am learning how to do this, I’m confident it will become easier over time.  I’m actually excited about ABS Nationals this year, but not because of the competition aspect to the trip, or that I might win.  I mostly cannot wait to see friends that live out West or down South that I cannot see often enough.  Does this mean that I won’t do my best or give myself excuses if I don’t do well? Not at all, no matter what happens I will continue to push myself to improve as a person and a climber.  I’m just happy I’m a bit more relaxed, in general, and that I get to climb with some amazing people from all over the country.

blurr Ambassador Jon Sedor

Jon Sedor recently joined the team and it's time you meet him.  Solid guy with a story to tell, a gold medal in the 2013 London Paraclimbing Cup to hang around his neck and a passion for the things we appreciate here at blurr - climbing, training and good product. Here's a bit about Jon....

Jon Sedor is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. He realized as a sophomore in high school that he loves to climb and draw/paint. However, in 2007 Jon lost his left hand (his dominant hand) in a serious accident. Jon underwent two amputations and three surgeries, but he never gave up on his dreams. He has since relearned to draw and live as a right-handed person. It wasn't until he met Kareemah, the founder of Adaptive Climbing Group, in 2013, that he began seriously climbing again as an amputee. Only four months after his return to climbing, Jon represented NYC Adaptive Climbing at the 2013 GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. This was his first ever competition as an adaptive climber, and he placed second in the upper extremity category. By placing in the top three, Jon qualified to compete at the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s Paraclimbing Cup in London in September 2013. With the support of Paradox Sports, he was able to compete in his first international climbing competition, where he had the honor of taking home the gold in the male upper extremity amputee category. One day, Jon hopes to be the first arm amputee to boulder V10+ and to compete in able-bodied competitions!

Competing and climbing hard routes, despite being fun, are not Jon’s main focuses on and off the rock. He hopes to be a leader in the adaptive climbing community by encouraging other athletes with physical differences to push their own limits and achieve their own goals. It’s important to Jon to give back to a community that has given him so much. He knows that he would not be as accomplished without people like Ronnie Dickson, Kareemah, and Timmy O’Neil – it’s essential, in his opinion, to share the stoke and be encouraging to others regardless of ability. Besides climbing, Jon is a painter and illustrator that finished his MFA in NYC this past May.

We're happy you got in touch Jon and psyched to have you as a blurr ambassador!

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